or 14.36 per cent on the amount operated upon; and 61.70 standard ounces of silver, being 24.91 per cent of the legal allowance on the amount received from the superintendent, or 25.19 per cent of the amount operated upon. COINING DEPARTMENT. The coining department began coining operations February 1, 1906. From that date to the end of the fiscal year the coiner received 1,575,260.62 standard ounces of gold and operated upon 1,535,371.76 standard ounces, and received 247,627.10 standard ounces of silver and operated upon 244,891.20 standard ounces. It manufactured during the same period 2,132,250 pieces of the value of $17,909,000, as shown by the following table: The percentage of coin produced from the amount operated upon was: Gold, 62.74 per cent, and silver, 57.11 per cent. The beginning of coinage operations in this mint, on February 1, 1906, was the most notable incident of the year in the mint service. It is the latest of our coinage institutions to be equipped, and should be, as it is believed to be, in all its methods and eqiupment, the most completely up to date of them all. It has had opportunity to learn from them all, to adopt the best features developed by each, and thus to get what is probably the most completely modern equipment possessed by any mint in the world. The officials and workmen have, however, not been content to simply accept and use the methods and devices of other institutions, but have shown a commendable desire to improve upon what has been done elsewhere, and in the first year of their experience have made a good record in this respect. The new mechanical plant started off smoothly and successfully. The power plant is a model of efficiency and beauty. Particulars as to it and the other equipment will be found elsewhere. A word is also due in recognition of the excellent work done by the machine shop of the Philadelphia mint, where the coining machinery was built. The most important innovation undertaken in the equipment of this mint is the use of oil as fuel for all melting and annealing operations. The first distillate is the grade used and the results are so far considered satisfactory. It flows freely and evenly and furnishes under blast a very high heat, which gives results more rapidly than any other fuel that has been used in the mint service. A comparison of cost between oil and gas has not yet been submitted, but oil is believed to accomplish a considerable saving. The effect of so intense a heat upon the furnaces themselves, from an economical standpoint, has not at this writing been actually determined, although it has been found that fire brick of the highest heat-resisting qualities is indispensable for lining purposes. The Denver mint was the first in the service to definitely abandon the annealing of strips. Other mints of this service had experimented with a view to doing so, but never heretofore with convincing results. The Denver mint was favored in this respect by having metal of better quality than has been commonly operated upon in the past. It is the first mint to pass all its gold through the electrolytic refinery, which gives a purer, more ductile product than any other process. The silver product of private refineries in recent years is uniformly of better quality than formerly. The elimination of strip annealing increases the amount of rolling, but is believed to reduce the total of expense for the preparation of blanks. This department has made a special effort to raise the percentage of blanks cut from the ingots received and is entitled to credit for distinct success. By using two and three punches in the cutting machine at once, "staggered," and adapting the width of the ingot to them, with careful feeding the percentage on silver blanks has been raised as high as 74 and 75 per cent. An oiling swab has been added to the punches. This swab consists of a tightly woven piece of merino wool felt, three-eighths of an inch thick, cut to snugly fit the male punches and held in place by clamps on each side, made of copper, and screwed to stripper plate, which uniformly distributes the oil and lubricates the punches. The swab increases the life of the punch, requires the minimum amount of oil, and prevents the oil from running on to the blanks and strips. The loss of weight by oxidation in the planchette annealing process has been practically eliminated. ASSAY DEPARTMENT. The operations of the assay department during the fiscal year 1906 were as follows: INGOT FINENESSES. The reported finenesses of the gold and silver ingot melts during the year ended June 30, 1906, were as follows: fiscal The reported finenesses of the refined gold melts during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1906, were as follows: The total number of officers and employees in the mint at the close of the fiscal year was 155, distributed as follows: ASSAY OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES AT NEW YORK, N. Y. The receipts of this institution during the year were as follows: 29 3080 $64,943, 814. 65 5,088, 217.83 70,032, 032. 48 The gross weight of the bullion as above, 7,573,449.76 ounces, shows an increase over the previous year of 626,111.34 ounces. The value of foreign gold bullion and coin was $30,110,530.15, an increase from that of last year of $22,615,613.37. The value of domestic gold in above total was $34,833,284.50, a decrease from that of last year of $8,902,860.77. The sources of this domestic bullion (gold) were as follows: From new production in the United States and Territories.. From private refineries... From jewelers' bars, jewelers' plate, etc.. From redeposited bullion (including transfer from Philadelphia mint). $6,912,739. 53 23,744,657. 16 3,577,618.74 25, 371.87 572, 897.20 This statement shows a decrease of $4,333,973.74 in gold deposits from the amount received last year from private refineries. Of the silver deposits, the fine silver (757,866 ounces) from private refineries shows a decrease from that of last year of 413,182 ounces. The silver in foreign unrefined and refined silver bullion (2,260,524 ounces fine) shows an increase over that of last year of 515.809 ounces fine; of the total amount received nearly all (2,171,271 ounces) came from Mexico. The redeposits of silver consisted of 74,110.65 standard ounces contained in fine bars made at this office, 29,460.66 standard ounces fine bars from Philadelphia, and 125.28 standard ounces of unparted bars made at the assay office at Seattle and the assay office at Helena. Of the gross amount of bullion received during the year, 878,000 ounces gold deposits and 3,149,000 ounces silver deposits, approximately, required acid treatment. Particulars as to the source and character of the deposits and redeposits appear in Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Appendix. Details as to deposits of uncurrent coin appear in Table 7. The surplus silver recovered by the melter and refiner in his operations was 327.38 ounces fine silver. The wastage of gold by the melter and refiner in his operations was 103.37 ounces fine gold. The amount of bullion delivered to the melter and refiner during the fiscal year 1905-6 was: Gold.. Silver. Standard ounces. 3,750, 486, 316 5, 138, 681. 59 The amount of bullion returned by the melter and refiner to the superintendent during the same period was: Gold. Standard ounces. 3,750,371. 464 5,139,045. 35 There were stamped during the year 51,813 gold bars and 23,437 silver bars. During the last year there were stamped 22,307 gold bars and 44,452 silver bars. Gold bars issued to depositors of bullion for domestic use.. Gold bars exchanged for gold coin for domestic use. Total gold bars issued for use in the arts, etc.. $4,380, 415.92 20,622 32 4,359,793.60 18,999, 988. 52 23,359,782. 12 Showing an increase of $4,877,771.20 compared with last year. The value of gold bars exchanged for coin for export was $1,055,397.42, being a decrease of $27,786,574.83 from that of last year. The income from the exchange of gold bars for coin was $9,845.19. The force employed in this office at the close of the year comprised 75 men, embracing the superintendent, assayer, melter, and refiner, and 72 others, distributed as follows: This department handled bullion as follows: The amount of bullion debited to this department was: The number of fine, mint, standard, and unparted bars made and delivered to the superintendent was of Gold. Silver. 51,813 23,340 Total.. 75,153 containing 3,123,534.430 ounces of standard gold, and 4,334,480.69 ounces of standard silver. Deductions on base silver bullion equal 4,113.40 ounces gross, estimated as containing 3,200 ounces of standard silver. The amount of metal refined by acid during the year was 4,658,868.84 ounces gross, containing 869,663.70 ounces of standard gold and 3,815.697.90 ounces of standard silver. The amount of silver bullion re-refined and upon which no charges were collected (and included in above statement) was 634,191.18 ounces gross, containing 657,650.80 ounces of standard silver. There was used in the refinery 1,684,328 pounds of sulphuric acid and 80,094 pounds of reduction copper, the amount stated in each case being the quantity received during the year ended June 30, 1906. Two million five hundred and sixty-seven thousand nine hundred pounds of waste acid and 229,001 pounds of blue vitriol were sold, and there were delivered to the superintendent 520 barrels of sweeps. Three hundred sixty-three and seventy-six one hundredths ounces of standard silver (value $363.76) was returned in settlement June 30, 1906, in excess of the amount debited to the melter and refiner, and there was a wastage of 114.852 ounces of standard gold (value $2,136.78), being 3 per cent of the legal allowance. |